San Jose Sharks are outshot 38-22 by the Carolina Hurricanes, but Martin Jones sparkles in net

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SAN JOSE, CA – OCTOBER 16: San Jose Sharks goaltender Martin Jones (31) blocks a shot in front of San Jose Sharks’ Brent Burns (88) against the Carolina Hurricanes in the third period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

SAN JOSE — Eight days ago after the Sharks suffered their fourth straight loss to start the season, Evander Kane — back in the lineup after he completed a three-game suspension — said it was clear he and his teammates needed to start playing a smarter game.

“We’ve got to figure out how we want to play,” Kane said Oct. 8 after the Sharks’ 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators. “We’re not scoring a lot of goals. … We’ve got to realize that when you’ve a team on the ropes, let’s just keep them there.”

Among the biggest areas of growth for the Sharks in the last week has been the way they’ve managed games and managed the puck, and they were rewarded for that heady play Wednesday with a 5-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Once they had a two-goal lead to start the second period, they didn’t try to get too fancy or keep pressing for more goals. They played patient, and Barclay Goodrow added to the Sharks’ lead with his third goal of the season, capitalizing on a Hurricanes turnover, at the 14:37 mark of the second period.

“I thought the second, we played really well, one of our better periods of the year,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “We got back on track. It was a big win for us against a very good team.”

Kane had his second career hat trick, with all of his goals coming in the first period, and Martin Jones made a season-high 36 saves, as the Sharks won their third straight.

“Our desperation level went up after that game,” Kane said Wednesday of the loss to the Predators. “You don’t want to get off to a really, really bad start and dig yourself a hole that’s going to be hard to climb out of at the beginning of the year.”

Other takeaways from Wednesday night.

1. A reminder of just how important Evander Kane is to the Sharks: No Sharks player combines physicality, skill and speed like Kane does. When he’s on his game, to state the obvious, it makes a huge difference for the Sharks.

Even in Kane’s first game back after his suspension last week against Nashville, it was easy to tell the impact he makes on the Sharks roster. Kane scored in that game, but his teammates played faster, competed harder and established a better forecheck.

“I think he felt bad about missing those games and we obviously missed him, and our record showed that,” DeBoer said. “He wanted to come in and make a difference, and he has.”

Kane now has four goals in the four games he’s played and if the Sharks can keep that second line going — Tomas Hertl added an empty net goal and two assists — then they have a top six forward group that can match up against most NHL teams.

“Establishing our home game here with some of the days between games, getting ahead early — that’s something we didn’t do when we lost for in a row — has been big for us,” Kane said “We’ve done a good job of taking a lead and playing with it. Those are some positive steps.”
SAN JOSE, CA – OCTOBER 16: San Jose Sharks’ Evander Kane (9) waits for a face-off against the Carolina Hurricanes in the second period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

Kane tied a career high last season with 30 goals in his first full year with the Sharks. Do the Sharks need more out him now considering the offense they lost from last season’s team?

“If I can get that again and have him continue to play at the level he’s playing at, and bring his physical presence, that’s a valuable guy for us,” DeBoer said. “We’d take more than that, but 30 (goals) is a hell of a year.”

2. Martin Jones and the penalty kill: Seven of Jones’ 36 saves Wednesday came on the penalty kill, including one where the Sharks were down two men for 45 seconds in the second period.

“Our special teams won us the game tonight,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said.

The Hurricanes were 0-for-4 with the man advantage against the Sharks, who are now 22-for-24 on kills this season.

What’s working?

“Just our pace,” Goodrow said. “We’re moving our feet, we’re pressuring the opposition. Try to force them to make plays a little quicker than they would like to.”

“We’ve taken a lot of pride in it for a long time,” DeBoer said of the penalty kill. “It’s been good for a few years here and we’ve got some of the same guys back on it. Goodrow and (Melker) Karlsson are usually the first two guys over the boards and they take a lot of pride in that. Mario Ferraro has been a good addition there. He’s aggressive, he makes aggressive reads and your goalie is always your best penalty killer.

The win was the second of the season for Jones, who increased his save percentage to .902 with Wednesday’s outing. In victories over Calgary and Carolina, Jones has stopped 68 of 71 shots. He made 15 saves in the first period against the Hurricanes.

If you add the Sharks’ season-opening loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, where he stopped 31 of 35 shots, Jones has had three good starts and two not-so-good starts. Clearly the return of Patrick Marleau has helped the Sharks’ overall defensive structure, and that has helped the performance of the two goalies — Jones and Aaron Dell.

It’ll be interesting to see how DeBoer deploys his goalies over the next few days. There is one back-to-back on the Sharks’ upcoming five-game, so it might make sense to start Dell vs. Montreal on Oct. 24 and Jones vs. Toronto the following night. But if Jones can keep this going, maybe DeBoer sticks with the hot hand as long as possible.

“He’s been locked in the last couple nights and when he gets like this, he’s one of the best,” Couture said of Jones, adding that in the first period, “He made those big saves and really kept us in that game. It could have gotten ugly with the chances that they were getting in the first. He played very well.”

Curtis Pashelka is the San Jose Sharks reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Prior to covering the Sharks, Curtis served as the high school sports editor for the East Bay. He also worked as a general assignment reporter covering motorsports, golf and college basketball, and as a backup writer on the A's, Giants and Warriors. He started at the organization in 2000 and spent close to eight years covering high school sports.